1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to an apparatus for loading replacement ribbon into spent ribbon cartridges, wherein the ribbon cartridges come in a wide variety of types and styles which are produced by different manufacturers. The apparatus removes the spent ribbon from the cartridge, and replaces it with new ribbon, thereby effectively recycling the ribbon cartridge. The apparatus will reload both right and left-handed ribbon cartridges of any size, including reel-to-reel type ribbon cartridges and endless loop ribbon cartridges.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Since their earliest introduction, typewriters have used inked ribbons to transfer ink to paper, and these ribbons were replaced when the ink impression formed on the paper became too faint. Replacement of the open ribbon, however, was a messy task because the operator had to handle the exposed and often cumbersome inked ribbon.
Ribbon cartridges were then introduced to make ribbon replacement a less cumbersome and dirty task. Ribbon cartridges are enclosed units containing a supply hub with inked ribbon wrapped around it, with one end of the ribbon attached to a take-up hub. A small section of the ribbon, located between the supply hub and the take-up hub, is situated outside the ribbon cartridge between a discharge opening and a feed opening on the cartridge. In use, the ribbon travels out of the cartridge through the discharge opening, past a printing head or similar impression device, and then reenters the cartridge through the feed opening. Because the cartridge substantially encloses the entire ribbon, the cartridge can be removed from a computer printer or typewriter without exposing the operator to ink stains. Ribbon cartridges are now widely used not only in typewriters, but also in printers for computers, calculators, and other devices where a printed rendering is desired.
A major problem encountered with ribbon cartridges, however, is that once the ribbon enclosed within the cartridge is spent, the entire cartridge must be discarded. This practice is economically acceptable only so long as the costs of raw supplies to produce the cartridge as well as the associated labor and transportation costs remain low. Recent market conditions, including the rising cost of raw materials, labor and transportation, have made ribbon cartridge replacements a relatively expensive office commodity.
Additionally, the spent ribbon cartridges are not easily recycled into different useable products and are therefore normally discarded as refuse. This is an ecologically unsound practice due to the high stability and slow degradation rates of the plastic resins from which the ribbon cartridges are predominately formed.
One attempt to increase the economic feasibility of ribbon cartridges is to produce a cartridge in which new inked ribbon can be manually reloaded into the cartridge, yielding a cartridge which can be reused many times, rather than discarded after only a single use. This solution, however, reintroduces the same problem that ribbon cartridges are intended to solve: The operator is once again exposed to a dirty inked ribbon which is difficult to handle.
Another method to increase the cost effectiveness of ribbon cartridges, which is now being practiced, is to ship the spent cartridges to a commercial facility where the cartridges are refurbished. This, however, is also an added expense which, due to the time and risk involved with shipping, may or may not be economically preferable to simply replacing the entire ribbon cartridge. The cost of shipping the cartridges itself may become prohibitive, or the time consumed in preparing the spent cartridges for shipment may be more costly than the savings realized in having the spent cartridges reloaded with new ribbon.
Additionally, as discussed in more detail below, there are a wide variety of cartridge styles, many of which may be found within a single office. For instance, an office's typewriters may have one or more different styles of ribbon cartridges, while the office's impact printers may add still more and different styles and types of ribbon cartridges. A commercial refurbisher may not be able to handle all the different types of cartridges. This would necessitate sending the cartridges to more than one refurbisher, thereby further complicating the problems involved with shipping and paying for the refurbished cartridges.
Unfortunately, the various manufacturers of typewriters, printers, and related devices have made no attempt to standardize the kinds of cartridges which can be used in their machines. Consequently, there is now an incredibly large diversity of cartridge sizes and dimensions presently available in the market place. These cartridges hold differing amounts of ribbon as well as different types of ribbon. This complicates the process of recycling or refurbishing the cartridges because the widely varying dimensions of the cartridges must be accommodated in order to achieve smooth and automatic reloading of the widest possible variety of cartridge styles. Also, a wide variety of ribbons themselves are currently in commercial use, including inked ribbons in various colors and widths, obliterating correction ribbons, and ink lifting correction ribbons. The presently claimed apparatus to reload ribbon cartridges is capable of handling all of these types of ribbons and is therefore capable of refurbishing a very wide variety of ribbon cartridges.
Even though there are numerous models of ribbon cartridges, all of the cartridges currently in commercial use fall into one of four basic design types. The first type of ribbon cartridge is a reel-to-reel cartridge, which is simply a conventional style typewriter ribbon placed inside a cartridge housing. This type of ribbon cartridge is analogous to a common audio or video tape containing a long length of ribbon having two distinct ends: A supply hub holds the length of ribbon, the ribbon exits the cartridge through a discharge opening, extends past a print head or other impression device, re-enters the cartridge through a feed opening, and is attached to a take-up hub. In use, the ribbon is wound off the supply hub and onto the take-up hub. When all of the ribbon has been transferred to the take-up hub, the cartridge is either discarded, or the direction of tape travel is reversed. In the latter scenario, the take-up hub becomes the supply hub, and vice versa. The ribbon is transferred back and forth between the two hubs until it contains too little ink to produce an acceptable product. At this point, the entire cartridge is discarded. In either instance, the cartridge also includes an external knob or knobs fixed to one or both of the supply or take-up hubs, which knobs can be rotated to advance the ribbon within the cartridge. If the ribbon advancement knob is located on the right-hand side of the cartridge when the cartridge is in its operating position, the cartridge is referred to as a "right-handed" cartridge. If the ribbon advancement knob is located on the left-hand side of the cartridge, the cartridge is designated "left-handed."
The second type of cartridge is an endless loop cartridge in which a length of ribbon is loaded into the cartridge by wrapping it around a plurality of rollers. After being loaded into the cartridge, the ends of the ribbon are spliced together to form an endless loop of ribbon. The ribbon is spliced together to form either an endless loop having both an inside surface and an outside surface, or one end of the ribbon is twisted 180 degrees and then spliced to the other end of the ribbon to form a Mobius band having only one endless surface. This type of cartridge also has an external ribbon advancement knob to advance the ribbon within the cartridge, and the ribbon advancement knob can be located on either the right-hand, or the left-hand side of the cartridge. Thus, these cartridges can be either right-handed or left-handed.
The third type of ribbon cartridge is identical to the second type in all regards except that the ends of the ribbon are spliced together before the ribbon is inserted into the cartridge. Hence, these types of cartridges are referred to as pre-spliced cartridges. This type of cartridge is also of the endless loop variety, and the ribbon can be either a two-surfaced endless loop or a Mobius band. Because the ribbon ends are spliced together prior to inserting the ribbon into the cartridge, these ribbon cartridges require a slightly different procedure for loading new ribbon into the spent cartridge from the procedure for loading ribbon which is spliced after being loaded into the cartridge. This type of cartridge also includes an external ribbon advancement knob for advancing the ribbon within the cartridge, and are found in both right and left-handed versions.
The fourth type of cartridge is identical to the third type of cartridge in all respects except that it lacks an external ribbon advancement knob to advance the ribbon within the cartridge. The ribbon, however, is pre-spliced before loading, and in all other respects the ribbon cartridge functions in an identical manner to the third type described immediately above. Because this type of ribbon does not have an external knob for advancing the ribbon within the cartridge, these cartridges lack "handedness."
The present invention makes the use of ribbon cartridges more economically attractive because the claimed apparatus will quickly and efficiently refurbish any size cartridge of the first, second or third type, in either right or left-handed versions. By refurbish is meant the removal of the spent ribbon from the cartridge and replacement of the spent ribbon with replacement ribbon. The new ribbon may be the same type of ribbon as the old, or may be a different type of ribbon. For instance, the newly loaded ribbon could be a ribbon carrying a different colored ink, or a ribbon of different width, a ribbon made of cloth or plastic film, an ink-lifting resin-coated ribbon instead of an inked ribbon, or an obliterating ribbon for correcting typographical errors, or a combination ink and correction ribbon. These examples are illustrative only, and are not intended to be limiting in any manner. The present invention will reload any type of ribbon capable of being placed inside a given ribbon cartridge.
Ribbon cartridge re-inking machines and refurbishing machines capable of reloading a variety of ribbon cartridges have been described in the prior art. An illustrative example is U.S. Pat. No. 4,390,294, issued Jun. 28, 1983, to Albert J. Castro (Castro). Castro describes a ribbon re-inking machine which is capable of loading a new ribbon into an empty ribbon cartridge. Unlike the present invention, however, the Castro device functions as a re-inking device, and does not include means to remove and discard the spent ribbon from the cartridge.
Another example of a ribbon cartridge loading apparatus is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,609,422, issued Sep. 2, 1986, to Paul E. Becking (Becking). The apparatus of Becking includes a drive motor for pulling new ribbon into the cartridge, and a supply motor connected to a supply spool to control the rate of delivery of the new ribbon.
Other approaches to simplify or speed the reloading of ribbon cartridges include improved methods of folding the replacement ribbon, or improved cartridges which make the reloading process easier. An example of the first approach is exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 4,240,757, issued Dec. 23, 1980, to Samuel Y. Hanna (Hanna). The Hanna patent describes an improved fanfold replacement ribbon package for containing a Mobius band endless ribbon.
A large number of refillable ribbon cartridges per se are known and reflected in the patent literature. A representative sampling of such refillable or reloadable ribbon cartridges is disclosed in the following U.S. patents: Daughters, U.S. Pat. No. 4,367,963; Wojdyla, U.S. Pat. No. 4,397,574; Craft et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,772,143; Lange et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,854,755; Heins et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,861,177; Beck et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,170; Hwang, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,986,678 and 4,990,008; and Burgin, U.S. Pat. No. 5,127,750.
None of the above-cited references is seen as teaching or fairly suggesting the presently claimed ribbon cartridge reloader.